Computer networks, such as the Internet, are extensively used for storage and retrieval of a vast reservoir of information. Person to person communication, in the form of electronic mail (“e-mail”), has also become widely accepted as a replacement for conventional mail and facsimile. Any individual who has access to the Internet can establish an e-mail account and communicate with other individuals on the Internet.
With conventional forms of telecommunication services, such as communication via a plain old telephone service (“POTS”), person to person communication may be facilitated merely by a calling party dialing a telephone number of a called party via a telephone coupled to the public switched telephone network (“PSTN”). The PSTN provides the communications intelligence and delivery of analog and digital information to end users. In such instances, the calling party and called party may have different local service providers and long distance carriers providing services over the PSTN. In either case, the specific service providers of the calling party and called party are irrelevant as the network providers and communication systems employ standard communication protocols for communication of disparate communication devices over the PSTN.
Similarly, e-mail communications use a standard communication protocol that allows the transmission of messages between users that may have different service providers. A message sender can subscribe to or obtain an account with a first service provider and still send an e-mail message to a recipient even when the recipient subscribes to a second service provider. This is true even when each service provider may have a unique communication protocol to communicate with its own subscribers because the communication between service providers employs a standard communication protocol. For instance, when subscriber A sends a message to subscriber B associated with a different service provider, the service providers negotiate the transmission of the message therebetween employing a protocol common to both service providers.
A new form of e-mail communication, known as instant messaging, is gaining popularity among users of the Internet. As shown in a popular movie, “You've Got Mail,” two individuals can engage in an ongoing electronic communication without the need for entering the recipient's e-mail address for each individual transmission. The advantage of instant messaging is that two or more individuals may engage in an ongoing electronic “chat” by simply typing a message on the keyboard and pressing the “Enter” button on the computer keyboard or by clicking on a “Send” icon to the computer display screen. Another popular feature that some Internet service providers offer is activity data that allows a user to monitor another subscriber's activity or presence (i.e., being logged on to a service) on the Internet. Yet another emerging service provided by some instant messaging service providers is voice services between subscribers via an instant messaging client, albeit a limited service capability and feature functionality.
Unfortunately, service providers do not employ a standard communication protocol for instant messaging or activity data. As a result, a particular service provider only supports instant messaging and activity data between its own subscribers. If a user wishes to send an instant message to an individual that subscribes to a second service provider, the user must also subscribe to the second service provider and logon to the second service provider system to engage in an instant messaging session with that particular individual. At the very least, this is a cumbersome procedure. Also, even if an individual subscribes to different service providers, the individual cannot engage in an instant messaging session with participants who are subscribers to the other service providers.
Similar issues are observed in the emerging voice via instant messaging area. Again, the respective instant messaging service providers employ a proprietary protocol to provide basic voice services for their subscriber base. Additionally, the voice services can only be accessed by the subscriber via the use of a complex equipment configuration including a personal computer, microphone, sound cards, speakers and several low level software applications with many inter-dependencies and other compatibility issues.
Regarding the types of communication networks, in the past voice and data communication networks were bifurcated wherein the voice communication networks handled voice traffic and data communication networks handled data traffic including e-mail and instant messaging type messages. The voice communication networks embodied networks such as the PSTN, which is a type of circuit switched communication network, whereas the data communication networks embodied networks such as the Internet, which is a packet based communication network. With the advent of protocols such as the voice over Internet protocol (“VoIP”), transmission of voice-to-voice communications over data communication networks is not only possible, but in vogue. To the contrary, however, communications between conventional voice communication networks and data communication networks is still not seamless. For example, while current instant messaging services allow for voice communications connected directly to data communication networks, telephone calls between a calling party using the PSTN and a called party connected to a data communication network with an instant messaging client, for example, has not been adequately addressed. The following examples further clarify the challenges posed to consumers of disparate services.
Suppose, for instance, that a user in a home environment has a single telephone line into the house. When that telephone line is being used, no other incoming telephone calls can be accepted by any member of the household. It would be useful if the consumer's Internet connection could also be used to facilitate telephone calls to the PSTN and act as a virtual second telephone line, without paying for the expense of having a second hardwired telephone line.
Similarly, suppose that a business would like its employees to have the ability to receive incoming telephone calls while away from the office or, in lieu of a second telephone line to the desktop, when connected to the employer's data communication network. While one solution may be to provide every employee with a cellular phone, the costs would be prohibitive. Since many employees have laptop computers for use away from the office, it would be cost effective and efficient if the employee could use a connection to the Internet or the corporate communication network to participate in telephone calls via the PSTN by using an instant messaging client.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system and method that facilitates communication between users employing disparate communication devices and different service providers, preferably located within the customer premises that allows for onsite or remote configuration. In accordance therewith, it would be advantageous to facilitate communications, albeit voice or data communications, within a home or enterprise environment regardless of the communication transport network to a user thereof. As an example, a system that facilitates voice communications over the PSTN via an instant messaging client would be well received and solve a limitation in the field of computer telephony.